Congratulations to Patriot Productions, FTHS’ own drama program, for their nine Basie Award nominations – a school record! The talented group of actors, backstage crew, musicians, and directors are off the heels of two incredibly successful shows, Gods of Comedy and Mean Girls, and the Basies have echoed their applause for Township’s finest performers.

In a program that is “modeled after Broadway’s Tony Awards, honoring excellence in high school theatre in Monmouth County,” adjudicators on the behalf of the Count Basie Center for the Arts gave ratings and notes surrounding acting, music, technical production, score, and more. In particular, Gods of Comedy received the honor of being a nominee in a new category for this year, Outstanding Company in a Comedy. This award recognizes not only principles, but also the ensemble, production team, house staff, crew, and more members of the show. Both of FTHS’ productions were a labor of love, so for the Basies to recognize the effort of the students and staff is quite an honor.

Outstanding Supporting Performance nominee Noah Zalika reminisces on his last year in the drama program, saying that “I had an amazing senior year in drama, with two shows that I am so happy and proud to have been a part of.”

Current ITS co-president and nominee for an Outstanding Featured Performance, Andrew Parisi, comments on what his nomination meant to him:

“​​Ultimately, it came down to hard work and long rehearsals. Rehearsals ran from 3-6 and the crew would meet everyday in the auditorium when we were not using it. Lots of time was spent running scenes in C120 to perfect everything down to the last detail. Tech rehearsals were from 3-8pm roughly for both shows, but that all fluctuated. Sometimes we were at school until 9pm. But overall for the Basie nominations, it all came down to the hard work that everyone did. My character would have been nothing if it had not been for Ms. Robbins’ instruction and the crews help with building my scene pieces. So when I saw my name on the Basie nomination sheet, along with everyone else’s from Township, I saw it as a collective victory.”

As noted earlier, the nine nominations are the most amount received by Patriot Productions in school history! Best Supporting Performance nominee Shain Stanley shares her excitement, stating that she was “honestly super shocked to be nominated by the Basies, but I was so unbelievably excited to be nominated. I couldn’t be more honored.” Zalika shares the same sentiment, adding that “getting nominated along with my talented friends is the icing on the cake.” Patriot Productions is notorious for its family-like bond, so for the Basies to recognize a year’s worth of talent and hard work is the cherry on top of a great drama season. 

Below are the awards from this Basie season; congratulations again to this talented group of performers and students!

• Outstanding Set Design for The Gods of Comedy
• Outstanding Featured Performance – Male for The Gods of Comedy – Philip Glenn, Connor Ormsby, AND Andrew Parisi
• Outstanding Supporting Performance – Male for The Gods of Comedy – Noah Zalika
• Outstanding Company in a Comedy
• Outstanding Direction of a Play – The Gods of Comedy
• Outstanding All Student Orchestra – Mean Girls
• Outstanding Supporting Performance – Female for Mean Girls – Shain Stanley

For a full list of this year’s nominees, click here!